O my soul,
Are you discouraged?
Hear the heart-cry of the psalmist and know that you are not alone.
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
― Psalm 13:1-2
How long must I take counsel in my soul? Discouragement is such a lonely place in which to be⸺after all, who wants to share their discouragement with another? So, lonely but not alone in that loneliness. Isn’t that the affliction of our age?
What can be done about this? And for how long must it be endured?
Recall that I wrestled with that second question for Amy. How long O Lord is truly the most unanswered question, although for good reasons. Recall those reasons and hold on to them in your discouragement and dismay for they will help you to endure. But what is endurance without deliverance?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
― Psalm 13:3
Discouragement must be dealt with before it becomes despondency and then depression and then the sleep of death. So what can deliver us from this? Precisely: O LORD my God, light up my eyes.
Light up my eyes! This is what is needed. O my soul, this is what you need. There is wisdom in the proverb.
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones.
― Proverbs 15:30
Jesus explained why this is so vital.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
― Matthew 6:22-23
The eye is the means by which that light enters the body, because this is how we perceive, or choose to perceive, the world around us.
There is more than one cause for that light to be lost. Firstly, sin. Do not underestimate the consequences to your spiritual wellbeing of persisting in sin.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness.
My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes⸺it also has gone from me.
― Psalm 38:3-5, 10
O my soul, let this not be the cause of your discouragement.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
― Romans 6:22-23
On the other hand, grief could be the cause.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing.
― Psalm 31:9-10a
There are various reasons to grieve but each one is a heartbreaking loss of something or someone. As you grieve know that you are not alone in that. Jesus also grieves and he grieves with you. Recall Martha and Mary’s dear brother Lazarus and the sisters’ bewilderment and dismay that Jesus hadn’t saved him, at least at this point in the story.
Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
― John 11:32-36
Jesus wept with Mary, and O my soul, know that he weeps also with you. But even in your grief beware lest sin creep in, as the psalmist continues.
My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
― Psalm 31:10b
In your weakness and vulnerability you must be ever vigilant against sin creeping in. By God’s grace and with the power of the Holy Spirit you simply must continue in personal holiness.
But irrespective of the cause of discouragement, we must ask what is the source of this light for the eyes, if we are to be encouraged, to be lifted up from our grief, to be freed from sin?
The proverb tells more than it knows.
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones.
― Proverbs 15:30
What is this good news? It is the ultimate good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
― John 3:16
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
― John 8:12
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
― Isaiah 9:2, 6
And so with this we can finally arrive at the psalmist’s destination.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
― Psalm 13:5-6
The Lord has indeed dealt bountifully with each one. Trust in his steadfast love and rejoice in your salvation!
O my soul, may Jesus himself light up your eyes with grace and truth and love, and may the light of his life shine on you! 🙏